Once you've made a few trips to regional facilities, you'll be ready to tackle research at one of the United States' genealogy meccas.

Once you've made a few trips to regional
facilities, you'll be ready to tackle research at one of the United
States' genealogy meccas: the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) <www.archives.gov> in Washington, DC, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Family History Library (FHL) <www.familysearcb.org> in Salt Lake City.

NARA
is the central location for US government records, including federal
census schedules, passenger arrival lists, military service and pension
records, and much more. You'll find some of these records on microfilm
at other facilities, but not all documents have been filmed. For an
in-depth guide to visiting NARA, see the June 2004 Family Tree Magazine.

Don't
worry: You don't have to go all the way to DC — NARA has regional
facilities around the country. Most facilities have all surviving US
census schedules, Revolutionary War pension files and other microfilmed
military documents, plus records for the geographical areas they serve.
Find the locations and holdings of these facilities at <www.archives.gov/facilities>.

If you have immigrant ancestors, you are going to want to know how to get a hold of their naturalization records. Find out tricks to tracking them down and analyzing their records to build your genealogy research.